what to prioritize at busiest sights
 

Hello,

After months of planning, my husband and I will be heading to southern Spain on May 15. The tickets for all the big sights have been bought in advance. I am hoping to get some advice on crowd-beating strategies for the busiest of the busy sights: the Alhambra and the Seville Alcazar. I have the first timed entry of the day for each of them (8:30 for the Alhambra and 9:30 for the Alcazar), and wonder if - once we get in - there is a specific area we should rush to first, in order to avoid the crush of the masses. Nothing against tourists (I am one!), but we had a really unfortunate experience at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, where we were among the first people to enter in the morning, and had a lovely hour in relative peace, but by the time we got to the Harem, it was an absolute mob scene, full of cruise-ship groups. We could have easily rushed to the Harem first if only we had known... So, I am trying to avoid that this time.

Anyway, are there favorite areas once inside the Alhambra or the Alcazar that I might want to prioritize? For several other sights (Seville Cathedral, Mezquita etc), I have booked late afternoon entry times, which tends to work well for us, so I won't feel the same sense of urgency to "beat the crowds" for those.

Many thanks!

Regarding the Alhambra, your timed entry tickets are for the Nasrid Palace, so that is the sight you will see at 8;30am. But you must arrive before 8:30, at least 30 minutes in advance, I think. After the Nasrid Palace, we visited the Generalife Gardens and then the Alcazaba.

Regarding the Real Alcazar, our ticket included the audioguide. We followed the prescribed route of the audio guide. We visited the palace and courtyards first and then the gardens.

KarenWoo has given you the key info for the Alhambra. FWIW, my time for Nasrid Palace was 1/2 hour after the first, and I then spent the entire day -- literally, until closing -- exploring this magnificent place. And I went long before it became as crowded as it is nowadays! My advice would be to hoof it to the Nasrid Palace, spend as much time as you want there, and then as much time as you want at other sites within the Alhambra. Also FWIW, for my tastes, the Palacio de Carlos V was the part of the Alhambra that least interested me. I'm glad I saw it, but if time / crowds are an issue, that's the place that I, personally, would make a lower priority.

I forgot that we did visit the Palacio de Carlos V, and I agree with KJA that I would make that a lower priority. Our favorites, in this order, are the Nasrid Palace, Generalife Gardens, and then the Alcazaba. We spent about 3/4 of the day at the Alhambra. This is a place that is to be enjoyed slowly and savored. Please don't rush through it. We also returned that evening for the nighttime tour, which is magical. The Nasrid Palace is illuminated, there are fewer people, and you can hear the sounds of the running water.

A bit off topic, but when you are in Granada, look for the plaques with the Mexican Poet De Icaza's famous supplication: "Dale limosna mujer....

The Alhmabra was sold out the day I went, and I didn't notice any mass crush (not like the Acropolis), but maybe they let more people in now?

Thank you, KarenWoo, ekscrunchy, and kja. Your trip reports have been a huge help to me while planning this trip! I appreciate the words of advice, and we will be sure to go extra early to Nasrid. I often wonder, with all these early entry times for the major sights, how do people manage the 10 or 11 PM Spanish dinner time? We will have to be in bed most nights by 10 in order to get up for the next day's sight-seeing! But that is off-topic. I had worried that, with the Real Alcazar in particular, that certain parts (like the Water Gardens) might get swamped with Instagrammers, so we might want to go there right away. But you are probably correct that we should just follow the audio-guide and not try to strategize too much :)

They have 2 hours asleep in the middle of the day, siesta

..and you do not have to wait so late to go for dinner.. Some restaurants open as early as 8:00. One of those is LOS DIAMANTES, a Granada institution for seafood. They have four locations and two of those claim that they are open all day with no break. But I would take that with a grain of salt; usually that means that you can sit there all day long but that the kitchen may or may not be open. It's sort of a rite of passage to go there once during a stay in the city...

https://losdiamantes.es

..their translation into English is funny...they are taking the literal translation of "carta" which is menu. But it's also "letter," and so they are inviting you to "meet our letter"

Not to extend the discussion about food for too long..I'll just say that on their menu, and on others in the city,, you might see mention of seafood from Motril. This is the port for Granada and so any seafood that comes from there would be said to be local.